I enjoyed visiting with Stephanie (She said that’s what her friends call her.) and especially appreciated this advice she offered to young authors.

The following is the video from the interview. In it, she discusses her background, highlights some of her books, provides additional advice to young authors, and discusses ways that she would enjoy connecting with you and your students.

Talking Ed. with Jefferson Knapp

I recently had the opportunity to interview Jefferson Knapp during the AAIM Conference in Fort Smith, Arkansas.

“A few weird memories that stayed with me ever since I was a kid eventually found themselves shaping the story that became The Kingdom at the End of the Driveway series. The people, animals and locations are all very real to me and will no doubt be shocking to some who weren’t aware that they or their pet had a part to play in this story” (Source).

The following is the video from the interview. In it, Jefferson introduces us to his book series, shares the inspiration for his first book, shares insights into his writing process, and discusses ways that he would enjoy connecting with you and your students.

Kirby Thomas is a librarian and media specialist at McAuliffe Elementary School in Broken Arrow, OK. She was named Teacher of the Year last year for the love and enthusiasm she gives to her children. Ellen DeGeneres has been spotlighting school libraries on her talk show Ellen, and recently surprised Kirby and the McAuliffe students and faculty with a bookmobile filled with books and iPad minis, a check for $25,000, and $75 gift cards for each of the 700 students at McAuliffe Elementary, a Title 1 school.

I’ll be facilitating one of the opening workshops today at the Arkansas Association of Instructional Media Conference. I’m excited to be back in Arkansas as I went to college and spent my first two years teaching in this state. The AAIM Conference is in Hot Springs which is one of my favorite Arkansan (Pronounced like “Are Kansan”) towns. I’ll be speaking a couple of more times throughout the 3 day conference. Here are the resources from today’s workshop.

“BarCamp isn’t just a Web 2.0 conference. It’s an unconference.cWhat does that mean, exactly? Well… that’s up to you. The entire event will be crafted by attendees (you), so you can learn about the specific technologies, trends, gadgets you really want to learn about – and hear from the people you find interesting. We’ll be voting first thing in the morning to determine the day’s sessions. Totally crowd-sourced!” (Source)

BarCamp Memphis 2010 will be at Emerge Memphis downtown. Located at 516 Tennessee Street in the historic South Main Street district of downtown Memphis, EmergeMemphis sits at the corner of Tennessee and G.E. Patterson (formerly Calhoun) Streets. The site is only two blocks west of the main Memphis train station and adjacent to the main gated entrance to the well-known South Bluffs residential area.

One of the professional development workshops I’m facilitating this week is titled Making the Curriculum Pop. We’ll be focusing on the use of digital media and alternative text selections to engage students’ interest in “pop” culture. I would appreciate any ideas for connecting music, TV, movies, newspapers, magazines, etc. with the curriculum, as well as links to images, audio, video, resources, etc. that you can share. I’ll certainly credit you for your suggestions, too.